Sprint has reacted to yesterdayâ€™s news of AT&Tâ€™s purchase of T-Mobile and has plainly stated its dissatisfaction with the move, by focusing on competition issues in a statement issued to the media posted below:

â€œThe combination of AT&T and T-Mobile USA, if approved by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC), would alter dramatically the structure of the communications industry. AT&T and Verizon are already by far the largest wireless providers. A combined AT&T and T-Mobile would be almost three times the size of Sprint, the third largest wireless competitor.â€

â€œIf approved, the merger would result in a wireless industry dominated overwhelmingly by two vertically-integrated companies that control almost 80% of the US wireless post-paid market, as well as the availability and price of key inputs such as backhaul and access needed by other wireless companies to compete, The DOJ and the FCC must decide if this transaction is in the best interest of consumers and the US economy overall, and determine if innovation and robust competition would be impacted adversely by this dramatic change in the structure of the industry.â€

Sprint was routinely seen as a potential merger partner for T-Mobile as far back as 2006 taking into consideration the size of both operations, even after Sprintâ€™s botched purchase and integration of Nextel, with the latest wave of purchase rumors pegging Sprint and Deutsche Telekom to set up a deal for the American carrier to purchase T-Mobile and merge operations with DT taking a stake in the new company, until yesterdayâ€™s shock news. With the possibility of being in a distant third place, Sprint is at risk to lose out on leverage with network equipment and handset manufacturers.

18 responses to “Sprint’s Reaction to The AT&T/T-Mobile Purchase”

As a Sprint Nextel customer and Nextel customer since 2000 and also as a past Sprint applicant to join the sprint team I would have to say that sprint is in huge trouble over this, no I didnt say big trouble, I said HUGE trouble. Speaking of the fact that I tried to join the team but didnt even get a phone call or atleast an email from the area reps tells me sprint doesnt want real people. This company is going down the tubes and they are really paying for it right now, as we look at this purchase. The fact that sprint didnt take the chance and purchase T mobile, and the fact that they want to shut down the iden network which holds the best push to talk service, is stupid on their part. Sprint, I hope you are reading everything that ive said on here in the past. Hear me now before its too late, you shut down iden, you lose the game. For alittle FYI, check out everything else that ive said in the past on phonenews. Thats all im going to say to you sprint.

The iden shut down has nothing to do with Sprint and everything to do with the government wanting that spectrum for government and emergency services employees.
In addition, there is no way Sprint could afford $39 billion for T-Mobile.
Finally, the transition will be relatively easy for AT&T due to using the same basic network technology. Had Nextel been a cdma network, Sprint would have had an easy time with their transition as well.

I think your missing the point here, the deal is this, sprint shuts down iden they lose a crap load of customers. Those customers will probably end up with verizon or att. If they dont want to lose a crap load of customers, Keep iden up and running come out with a new hybrid phone or phones and stop telling the public that the hybrid phones didnt work when they did, it was nothing but an excuse to just have 1 network and 1 network only. I dont care, you shut down iden, your toast, Like i said before, I hope sprint is reading exactly what I said now and before. They shut down iden they lose. Done deal

I work for corporate Sprint at their main campus and hate to say it but we were a day late a dollar short regarding acquiring T-Mobile. It’s only a matter of time before we get bought out ourselves. The beginning of the end of us began with the purchase of Nextel Communication in October 2005. As it has been stated, 80% of the wireless market will be dominated when/if at&t does acquire T-Mobile by them and Verizon Wireless. “The Best Value in Wireless” motto won’t be enough to save us. Thank God I’m only a semester away of getting an MBA in International Business Management and will be joining one of wireless competitor’s.

Some of you don’t know what your talking about. The iden network might have the best push to talk but they have horrible data speeds and the hybrid phones were not that good. That is why sprint is moving forward with their new sprint vision plan program that is going to improve their current network and introduce a new push to talk that will finally allow high speed data. Both motorola and samsung have agreed to make phones under this new technology. Some people need to do some research before saying anything.
But like someone said the iden situation has nothing to do with this buyout. It’s just sprint doesn’t have enough money and att does, especially since with all the money they get from iphone users every month.

How many customers are on post pay iden right now? It can’t be too many. I sure don’t see too many people using post pay iden phones. In fact, I can’t even remember the last time I saw someone using one. I see Boost phones here and there, but seeing a Nextel phone is pretty rare.

This is a 4G world we’re living in. Anyone clinging to iden is stuck in the past. If you’re going to live in the past, then don’t be surprised when technology passes you by.

Sprint will have a much better push to talk service (didn’t they say it would have group video chats?) for the continually shrinking group of people that even care about that.

Back in the day when there was no alternative iden was probably a necessity. But technology moves along and iden is an ancient technology. Shutting down the iden network and focusing on 4G is the logical way to go. And if Sprint is significantly cheaper than Verizon and AT&T without the caps and limits, they will do just fine.

And I agree with Sprint. AT&T should not be allowed to purchase T-Mobile. We had 1 big GSM carrier, and 1 small GSM carrier, to go with 1 large CDMA carrier, and 1 small CDMA carrier. Now AT&T will have a monopoly on GSM in the USA. And AT&T should be the last company we want to have a monopoly. They have done absolutely nothing to be consumer friendly, ever.

LOL, lose tons of customers when iDEN shuts down? An overwhelming majority of Sprint’s iDEN customers left already, there’s only 5 million users left, compared of Nextel’s 20 millions subscribers back in 2004. Of the current 5 millions, a huge chunk is from Boost Mobile who customers probably don’t even care about push to talk. If there are still customers keen on using push to talk, Sprint probably still have the best option with the new push to talk on CDMA. Sprint would have been stupid to merge with T-Mobile, it’s credit rating would sink just to get enough cash to purchase it, AT&T had to borrow $20 billions just to get enough cash for T-Mobile.

Hahaha sprint was a day late and dollar short?!! No good would have come of sprint buying tmobile. Working for sprint you should know that would have never worked right? Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t sprint the only carrier to add net subscribers last year?

You people would think im chicken if I didnt answer to the comments about what I said in the past. Ill just say this, when iden shuts down, and sprint loses out. then well talk. Its kinda like what I say about my truck versus someone else truck. when you put 320,000 miles on your truck, then come talk to me lol

I can’t see how consumer complaints, emails to regulators and congressmen, sprint crybabies or tech blog whining will stop the inevitable here. The AT&T/T-Mobile is for all intents and purposes, a DONE deal. Between lobbyist regulatory capture and a few concessions by AT&T of a market here, some spectrum there, the deal WILL be approved and WILL close. Of these things I am absolutely convinced.

In 12 to 18 months from now, the T-Mobile brand will be but a memory As of this morning, Verizon’s CEO said he had no interest in Sprint, that his primary interest is maintaining maximum company profitability, and he didn’t NEED Sprint. Well he is probably right, but just a few weeks ago, DT CEO was saying “Don’t worry, we have no intention to sell T-Mobile”. The fact is, I wouldn’t believe a word of what these corporate hustlers say to the public with smiles on their faces if the salvation of my very soul depended on it.

Personally, I don’t think this merger is a bad thigng. We have too much network redundancy due to “competition” in this country as it is. Sure, European companies compete, but at least the network infrastucture is stndardized so that phones can interoperate, and in fact are seldom sold by carriers over there. They are sold in retail outlets off the shelf, like toasters. I would, economic considerations aside, gladly embrace monopolization of the industry in the US if the result would be a common network infrastructure and a common modulation technology and frequency across all phones.

Personally, I dont think theres any way this purchase will be approved by either DOJ or the FCC ! If they did, then it would only be a matter of time before Verizon would purchase Sprint, which would make this a monopoly ! Does anybody remember what happened when WorldCom tried to purchase Sprint back in the day, what happened ?! It wasnt allowed ! The same thing is going to happen here !

May I just say i’m very glad they’re combining. While the competition will be less, I’m sick of tmobile say they’ve got good coverage. Once the two combine att will be good. Oh and what ever about crap service from att. You people are stuck in the 90’s when they WERE bad. This is 2011 people get with the program!!

LOL at HTC-Thunderbolt…. it’s so true: at&t bought asset from VZW when VZW was merging with Alltel and others, and VZW bought asset from at&t when at&t was merging with others. In the end, at&t and VZW didn’t lose anything from the past mergers.

[…] duopoly.â€This follows similar comments made last week during the CTIA trade show, with Sprint detailing its reaction to news of the purchase in an open letter to the media.var SurphaceSettings={s4id:'JTP9U27X'};var […]